Layout mock-up for a human-readable summary of a Texas parenting and child custody order.
Written for Tech for Justice in Austin, February 21-22, 2015.
Based on a sample parenting order provided by the Texas Legal Services Center.
This partial mock-up is only for use as a starting point for designers. It doesn't reflect a real order, and it shouldn't be relied upon as a source of information!
The mock-up reorganizes the original order's list of rights and duties into a three-level hierarchy: first by life events, then by when the rule applies to the parent, and finally at the bottom level by whether the rule is a "right" or a "duty." The top two levels are communicated with icons, but the "right or duty" distinction is shown by the color of the text: blue for a right and red for a duty. Also, note that while the formal order is addressed to both parents, the idea is that each parent would get a separate summary. That way the summaries could make statements addressed to one parent like "You have the right to make medical decisions about surgery, but your co-parent doesn't."